Somehow still going leftism from who knows where. || "We live in a world ruled by fictions of every kind - mass-merchandizing, advertising, politics conducted as a branch of advertising, the pre-empting of any original response to experience by the television screen. We live inside an enormous novel. It is now less and less necessary for the writer to invent the fictional content of his novel. The fiction is already there. The writer's task is to invent the reality." -- JG Ballard.

Tuesday, November 06, 2012

Bomber Cameron's on tour again.

Last year, while on his previous jaunt around the Middle East selling weapons to autocracies, David Cameron had a sudden attack of the vapours. There he was, pimping himself out for the country, going to a godforsaken land where his only home comfort was Fruit Ninja, and the journalists who'd travelled with him had the temerity to question whether he should be there at all! Didn't these people understand even shitty little democracies like Kuwait must have the right to defend themselves? Granted, it's not clear how they're meant to defend themselves from invading forces with the stuff we mostly sell them, such as riot shields, but that's irrelevant. This is about supporting British business and British manufacturing, not to forget the rebalancing of the economy away from the state and financial sectors. Why are all these critics so obtuse?

This time round, the Cameron team's solution to prevent embarrassment was simple: they just didn't invite the media along with them. After all, who needs the cynical British press around when all they do is whinge and moan about everything? They also tend to ask uncomfortable questions in front of foreign dignitaries, whether they be objections to the UAE's puritanism which leads to British citizens getting thrown in prison for enjoying themselves too much, or in the case of our dear friends the Saudis, so much as asking them about anything.

Besides, we need to flog the Eurofighters to someone: at best, they'll eventually end up costing us £23bn; at worst, it'll be £37bn, or almost the equivalent of an entire year's defence budget. The Saudis have already taken some, and now we're trying to get the UAE to take a few as well. Although originally intended as a fighter to battle the Soviets, we've since spent even more money making them slightly more useful as an air-to-ground bomber. This raises the question of what exactly the Saudis and the UAE will end up using them for. Clearly they'll be a deterrent, but just how likely is a conventional invasion of either nation? Considering the Saudis have previously shown little inclination towards intervening anywhere other than proxy states such as Bahrain, where a show of force was enough to crush the uprising there, it's dubious in the extreme they're likely to be used in an attack in Iran or elsewhere, except in a reprisal for a pre-emptive strike.

I think it was Farenheit 911 where Michael Moore drew attention to the snog-snog relationship that exists, politically and economically, between the US and Saudi. The UK is duty bound to follow where the Americans go.